Udo Kier

Also known as Udo Kierspe

Udo Kierspe, known professionally as Udo Kier, was a German actor. Known primarily as a character actor who often portrayed eccentric and deviant figures, he appeared in more than 220 films in both leading and supporting roles throughout Europe and the Americas.

OverviewAI-generated

Udo Kier, born Udo Kierspe on October 14, 1944, in Cologne, was a German film, stage, voice, and television actor. He began his work period in 1966 and spoke German. His sexual orientation was homosexuality, and he was male.

Kier died on November 23, 2025, in Rancho Mirage. His work period ended in 2025. He held citizenship in Germany.

Synthesized by Vinony from 18 facts across 2 sources: Wikidata, MusicBrainz. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

In the Vinony graph

Vinony's link graph records 374 inbound references to Udo Kier, and connects out to Rancho Mirage, Grindhouse and The Batman.

It is catalogued under topics including 1944 births, 2025 deaths and 20th-century German LGBTQ people.

Vinony links it to 43 Wikipedia language editions.

Film & TV

Cologne, Germany

Udo Kierspe (October 14, 1944 – November 23, 2025), known professionally as Udo Kier, was a German actor. Known primarily as a cult character actor who portrayed eccentric and deviant figures, he appeared in more than 220 films in both leading and supporting roles throughout Europe and the Americas. He collaborated with acclaimed filmmakers such as Lars von Trier, Gus Van Sant, Werner Herzog,…

Known for

By Design — Aldo Fabbri2026
Return from Tomorrow — Tim Senior2026
Bad Painter — Ö2025
The Secret Agent — Hans2025
Skeletons in the Closet — Luc2024
Der wunderbare Udo Kier — Self2024
Schindler Space Architect — R.M. Schindler (voice)2024
A E I O U – A Quick Alphabet of Love — Michel2022
A Kilo of Blue (The Music)2022
Staging Death2022

via TMDB

Music · MusicBrainz

Type: Person
Gender: Male
Country: Germany
Active from: 1944
Active to: 2025

Discography

Der Adler1985

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Wikipedia views (30d)

46,503 total

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Key facts

Born: Udo Kierspe , ( 1944-10-14 ) 14 October 1944, Cologne , Nazi Germany
Died: 23 November 2025 (2025-11-23) (aged 81), Rancho Mirage, California , U.S.
Occupation: Actor
Years active: 1966–2025
Partner: Delbert McBride

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Instance of: human
Given name: Udo
Gender: male
Citizenship: Germany
Place of birth: Cologne
Place of death: Rancho Mirage
Occupation: film director
Languages spoken: German
Official website: www.udokier.de
Image: MJK 10214 Udo Kier (Figlia Mia, Berlinale 2018).jpg

Show 8 more facts

Commons category: Udo Kier
date of birth: 1944-10-14
name in native language: Udo Kier
sexual orientation: homosexuality
start of work period: 1966-00-00
birth name: Udo Kierspe
date of death: 2025-11-23
end of work period: 2025-00-00

Sources (8)

via Wikidata · CC0

~7 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Udo Kierspe (14 October 1944 – 23 November 2025), known professionally as Udo Kier, was a German actor. Known primarily as a character actor who often portrayed eccentric and deviant figures, he appeared in more than 220 films in both leading and supporting roles throughout Europe and the Americas.

Kier made his breakthrough playing the title characters in the cult films Flesh for Frankenstein (1973) and Blood for Dracula (1974), both directed by Paul Morrissey, which established him as an icon of the horror film genre. He became a staple figure in both mainstream genre film and art house circles, described by one obituary as a "cult icon". He collaborated with notable filmmakers, such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Lars von Trier, Gus Van Sant, Werner Herzog, Walerian Borowczyk, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Dario Argento, Guy Maddin, Wim Wenders, and Rob Zombie.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Udo Kier” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.